Vice President Dick Cheney Pays the Capital City a Visit

By Mike Vasilinda&nbsp|&nbsp

Posted: Wed 6:32 PM, Oct 06, 2004&nbsp|&nbsp

Updated: Wed 6:32 PM, Oct 06, 2004

Fresh from his face-off with Democratic challenger John Edwards Tuesday night in Cleveland, Cheney is taking his debate-talking points on the road to a city where his journey to the White House almost ended four years ago.

The vice president got a rousing welcome from the party faithful. The Town Hall meeting was billed as a Q&A on health care, but Lynn Cheney set a different tone from the beginning.

Cheney did make the pitch for limits on lawsuit damages against doctors and then took about a half dozen questions, some of them tough, but the vice president's major focus was Iraq.

"The man who will get the job done is George W. Bush," said Cheney.

Florida Democrats helped Faye Armitage get tickets. She tried to ask about stem cell research for her 14-year-old wheel chair bound son, but had to settle for tossing the veep a question afterwards.

Faye says, "He didn’t really answer the question, but he said that the private sector is doing that research."

Although this part of the state is heavily Democratic, Cheney’s visit here is expected to show up support among blue dog Democrats, those Democrats who usually vote for a Republican president.

The faithful who came were clearly energized.

Bert Bevis, a realtor, says, "Florida is a very important state. We want to pull Florida for Bush this year. It was close last time, it’s not going to be close this time."

Online Public Information File

Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or fccinfo@fcc.gov.